There’s a moving story of an Episcopal priest’s crisis of faith that started when a medical crisis nearly destroyed his family. The Orange County Register tells the story of The Rev. Brad Karelius, rector of Church of the Messiah, Santa Ana California and how he was able to reconnect with God during a visit to one of the most empty and barren places in United States.
“On June 16, 1987, the Kareliuses were on a flight to Boston when their four-year-old son, Erik, went into a continuous seizure. Hospitalized, he was diagnosed with encephalitis.
Erik’s frontal lobe was severely damaged. It meant, as dad puts it, his only son would be ‘an eternal four-year-old.’
In the following years, Erik’s seizures never seemed to stop. Many times, he was expected to die.
Emergency trips to the hospital to save Erik’s young life were frequent. An ever-changing series of drugs helped. But every night, Karelius slept by his son’s side, ready to save his boy.
It helped that Karelius’ wife, Janice, was a family nurse practitioner. And it also helped that the couple’s other child, Kathryn became not only one of Erik’s helpers but her brother’s best friend.
On the outside, it appeared Karelius was handling things. He was building the congregation from 150 to more than 700 members. And Karelius was being courted to become rector at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills.
But his son’s suffering tore Karelius apart.
The priest realized his spiritual life was a blank.”
Read the full story here.